The Ekaru Gazette   Vol 3-3. July 2003

Welcome to this month's issue! Our mission is to provide technology information you can use to grow your business.

SPAM - What you need to know!
In the past few months, the amount of Spam - unsolicited bulk email advertisements - has risen significantly. Many people have asked us what they can do about this problem.

The Boston Globe, MIT Technology Review, and PC magazine have all covered this important topic recently. Summarized below are some of the highlights of these reports, in addition to some recommendations about what you can do.

In 2000, spam accounted for about 8% of all email. At the end of 2002, the volume had risen to 40%, and today spam represents about 50% of all email traffic. About 13 billion spam messages are sent every day. The average user gets about 15 spam messages per day. Spammers send out tens of thousands of messages per hour - some have sent over billions of emails. In fact, 90% of spam is sent by fewer than 200 people.

Deleting each message that sneaks through hurts worker productivity - The projected cost to organizations in the US for 2003 is about $10 billion. (San Francisco based Ferris Research).

Some researchers at Microsoft predict future spam levels up to 90%, which would cause many people to simply stop using email. Even worse than junk email is the prospect that new spam filtering software will block a legitimate email from reaching its recipient. This is causing problems for companies (like Ekaru) who use email to communicate with our clients and community. It has become a major problem and many new companies have formed just to develop technology to solve the problem. The first of its kind spam conference at MIT in January drew a crowd of over 600.

There are three major approaches developing to deal with the issue:

1. Filtering software: Software enables users to filter their incoming email based on many different algorithms to block unwanted email. Some solutions include keywords or blacklists to block senders.
2. Creating a cost to sending email - either in $ or computing time. For example, 1-tenth of a cent per email. Not enough to deter a legitimate user, but at $1000 per million email messages, enough to make a spammer think twice. Another approach is to have a PC solve a mathematical problem each time it sends an email - crippling if you're trying to send a million messages at once.
3. Legislation: Creating laws for honoring opt-outs and preventing unwanted use of networks. Prosecuting people who break into networks to steal email addresses.

One downside of all this is that the current efforts to help block spam are actually causing more spam to be generated - spammers are now sending 20 variations of the same message in the hopes that one gets through. Also, be aware that spammers are now working on making their messages appear to be from someone familiar.

Filtering software: PC Magazine recently ran a product review of several of the leading anti-spam solutions available today. Each product was tested with 949 emails, 296 of which were spam. This is not a huge sample set, but does give a rough picture of the efficacy of anti-spam software. SpamAssassin Pro2003 was the Editors choice: 4.3% false positive, 11.1% false negative. Outlook Filtering, which was tested for comparison had a false positive rate of 1.2% and a false negative rate 64.5%. This isn't a great statistic, but you may want to try it if you already have Outlook.

What you can do:

1. Consider using filtering within MS Outlook or invest in spam filtering software
2. Practice good time management - set aside specific times to read and process email.
3. Don't reply to spam messages. Delete and ignore spam messages. In some cases all you end up doing is proving your email address is real, and it becomes even more valuable to spammers.
4. When sending email, use a specific subject description so the recipient will recognize the message.
5. When sending a very important email, such as a client communication, follow up with a phone call to make sure it is received.

Technology Tip: Wireless Networks - Important security news
The Boston Globe recently reported on this new trend in digital crime: Hackers and intruders can gain access to un-secure wireless networks by simply picking up a signal, for example, out in a parking lot of an apartment building, home, or office. Many people are purchasing wireless digital routers for their new broadband connections in their home office or small office. Wireless routers are a quick and easy way to set up a network without incurring wiring expenses, but make sure you take proper precautions: Change the password, SSID and use WEP encryption. Budgets are tight, and many people are going the "do-it-yourself" route, but failure to take simple precautions can be a big mistake. Also, always be sure that you are using up-to-date anti-virus software and a firewall.

  Happy 4th of July!  Enjoy your summer!

Sincerely,
Team Ekaru

  ©2003 Ekaru, LLC. All Rights Reserved.